Wikitravel:Region article template

NOTE: This is an informational template that describes the structure to use when creating articles about geographical regions. Editing this template will NOT create a new article; for information on how to create new articles see Wikitravel:How to start a new page.

Regions are somewhat nebulous organizational groupings we use on Wikitravel to organize all the many cities in a country into some kind of navigable and comprehensible hierarchy. They can be sub-national political territories, like Minnesota or New South Wales, or more nebulous "tourist" regions like Normandy, or the American Southwest. Region articles tend to be more "soft", discussing the people, culture, climate, and cuisine in the region, rather than the legalistic stuff that's in a country article, or the addresses-and-phone-numbers stuff that's in a city article.

Before you plunge forward creating a region, keep in mind that we only add a new level of regions when there are too many cities or too much content in the existing breakdown. The regional hierarchy at Wikitravel doesn't always follow the official breakdown—and frequently is much "flatter" than the official breakdown.

To quickly insert a complete blank region template, copy-and-paste the quick version into the edit box on the page you are editing, or simply use {{subst:region}}, which will expand into the region template on save.

Stuff in italics below is editorial comment, with suggestions for what should go in each section. You should plan on ruthlessly eliminating if you copy this code to a new region article.]

The introduction to a region does not have a heading. This is where you should put facts about the region. Links to the surrounding region -- like New England in the Connecticut article -- are helpful, as well as a link to the country. Rough borders for the region are a good thing to put here, too.

Contents

Regions can have sub-regions, and those can have further sub-regions, and so on and so forth. If this region contains other regions, list them here with brief info about each. If not, leave this section out.

If the sub-regions have specific names ("county", "state", "province", etc.) feel free to change the name of this header to "Counties", "States", etc.

It's usually a good idea, if there are a few prominent cities in the region, to list them here, since that's often all that travelers are looking for. Regions without sub-regions, though, just have cities in them. List links to each city, with a brief description for each. If there are more than nine cities and the region could be sensibly divided into subregions, consider doing so. If there really aren't any cities to list, leave out this section.

Per Wikitravel:One-liner listings, cities should be listed in alphabetical order. If the region corresponds to a political entity (such as a state or a province), always list its capital city first.

Lastly, if calling the settlements in this region "cities" is a real stretch -- say, for remote or rural areas with only towns and/or villages -- it's OK to rename this section 'Towns' or 'Villages' or 'Settlements' or whatever. But if there are lots of different kinds and sizes of settlements, just leave it as "Cities".

Sometimes a region has destinations that aren't really cities; for example, large national parks. List them separately here, with descriptions, if they exist. Otherwise, leave out this section. This section, too, can be renamed if all destinations fall into a nice category, eg. "Islands" or "Beaches".

This is a more subjective description of the region -- what it's like, why someone would want to go there, the culture and atmosphere, the history, the weather, what makes it different and distinct from other regions.

If there are any language issues with the region that are different from the country as a whole, or the surrounding region, point them out here. Regional dialects of the national language, for example, are worth listing, as well as large local minority languages. Even local slang or sayings can be helpful to a first-time visitor. Consider linking to the phrasebook for the local language, if it's different from the country's language. If there really aren't any language issues, just leave this section out.

This is where you would note the best arrival points to start exploring this region from. For example, it would be worth listing Phoenix and Albuquerque as good starting points for the American Southwest. You can also give driving directions from large nearby cities that readers might be coming from. Save the nitty-gritty details of how to get to the main entry points for a region for their city pages, though.

This is where you'd give general information about how to get around the region once there. What are ways to see this region: by train, by car, by bus? Are there other options? This is also a good place to list regional travel discount passes or other purchasing options. Save point-to-point details for the individual city articles, though.

This is for an overview of the types of attractions as well as the principal attractions in the region. Don't give full details about each attraction; you should have that in the article for the city where the attraction is.

This is for a summary of activities in the region, that is, things that travellers will do themselves. More active participation is needed for Do things than for See things. For example, going to see a river goes under See; kayak trips down the river go under Do. Don't give full details about each activity; you should have that in the article for the city instead. Not every activity in the region needs to be mentioned -- just ones that are so important people expect them to be on the main page for the region.

This is a great place to describe the regional cuisine. Are there any specialties that travelers should try while they're in this region? Immigrant or minority populations with their own cuisine? Try to mention lots of types of food, and keep people on special diets -- like vegetarians or people eating kosher -- in mind. If one or a couple linked destinations have especially notable dining scenes, note that here, but don't mention individual restaurants or such in the region article -- save that for the individual city articles. Do mention, however, which cities or subregions have an especially notable dining scene.

This (kind of badly named) section is for all kinds of nightlife, not just drinking. Are there regional specialties for alcohol, wine, beer, etc.? What about music and entertainment, like honky tonks for Texas or folk music in the Atlantic Provinces? What is there to do in this region that makes it different? If nightlife is concentrated in one or only some of the linked destination articles, note that here.

The sleep section is optional, and often left out to discourage spammers from adding their hotels here. If included in the article, this section should explain what to expect in terms of accommodations; it should highlight region-specific types of accommodations. It is sometimes appropriate to also explain which cities have the bulk of the accommodations options.

If there are any particular safety issues -- crime, weather, etc. -- for the region in general, describe them here. If one section of the region is much more dangerous than the rest, that is also a good thing to note.

Information about nearby destinations that would serve as a good "next stop." Provide a brief description of other nearby destination suggestions, neighbouring cities or day-trip ideas. Don't duplicate information that's up in "Get in." For really large regions, if it makes no sense to suggest a day trip at such a high level, just leave the section out. But be careful - while California is a big region, it should still have a "Get out" because Las Vegas is indeed a popular weekend destination for all Californians.

At the end of the article, you may find various templates like {{outline}} and interwiki links like [[de:Vorgabe für Regionen]]. These have special functions, please do not change or delete them unless you understand what they mean.